this freshman year i got cut from the team. i thought i did well and everyone was saying how i didnt make it and everything, but i went up to my coach to see why i didnt make it. he said i was short and skinnier (5'6, 120 at the time) (5'7, 125 now) than the guards ahead of me and i didn't have a good of a shot or handles as them. so i have basketball workouts in a couple weeks, and i wanna improve my game.

things i need to improve:
more consistency shooting
handles (most important thing)
floater.

any tips? and plus I'm a very good post up player and rebounder for my size but its kinda hard to post up cuz im usually the smallest.

Hey man, sorry to hear u didnt make it.
For your handles, training is easy, youtube will find you literally hundreds of drills, doing both moving and stationary drills at maximum intensity with 1 and 2 balls will skyrocket your handle of the ball.
For shooting you need good form. if yours is good right now drill it in with 100s of form shots start close to the basket and work your way backwards.take spot up shots off the spin, off the dribble and off the catch. then work in to game situational drills and shots.
for your floater its easy. shoot floaters. start close as always drill the form in, then take it further back, some people shoot floaters off the glass some go for all net try both and shoot from different angles. the most important thing about the floater is getting it high over the big mans long arms and releasing before it can be blocked
please ask me to clarify anything or further explain things

this freshman year i got cut from the team. i thought i did well and everyone was saying how i didnt make it and everything, but i went up to my coach to see why i didnt make it. he said i was short and skinnier (5'6, 120 at the time) (5'7, 125 now) than the guards ahead of me and i didn't have a good of a shot or handles as them. so i have basketball workouts in a couple weeks, and i wanna improve my game.

things i need to improve:
more consistency shooting
handles (most important thing)
floater.

any tips? and plus I'm a very good post up player and rebounder for my size but its kinda hard to post up cuz im usually the smallest.

thanks ish

for your handles I would suggest carrying a basketball around with you everywhere you go. When youre at home watching TV, keep a basketball in your hands, shoot in the air, do finger tip drills, whatever. The point is getting your hands used to the feel of the basketball. This is the first step to having a tight handle. You can do drills all day but you must teach your hands the size of the ball so they are naturally accustomed to it.

After that, you will have more confidence in your dribbling because A) you will be more aware of where the ball is in your hands/in relation to your body B) that will enable you to keep your head up at all times. THEN you can do advanced drills for balling handling. It will be too steep a learning curve if you just jump right in. So for the next two weeks, get a ball, preferably the same type of ball you use in HS games, and treat it like your baby. When you do start advanced dribbling drills, try to dribble the ball as hard as you can without losing it. The harder your dribble, the faster it comes back to your hand and the harder it is to steal from you. Do this and dont let the ball go above your knee height and nobody is going to strip you.

For shooting, your age might possibly be the most important time to learn how to shoot properly. Because you are younger you are less likely to have developed a lot of bad habits (or ones that cannot be broken) but you will also have a chance to develop bad habits quickly. Shooting is all about repetition. You must first learn the proper form, and then repeat it a certain number of times for it to become instinctive.

-Start with form shooting: step right up to the basket so that if you raise your hand straight up it will be aligned with the front of the rim. Take the ball in one hand and really focus on:

a) keeping the ball on your "pods and pads" Most people will say keep it in your fingertips but with guys with smaller hands that is ridiculously unreasonable to expect them to do so. Instead focus on two pressure points: pods being your fingertips themselves, and pads being the hard area on your hand just below your fingers (the part that usually gets callused when your do pullups) You don't have to grip the ball like you are going to pop it but make sure your fingers are spread out, that will naturally give you better grip over time.

b) make sure your wrist is cocked back and your arm is in a RIGID L shape. When you shoot the ball, the sequence you are looking for is first your elbow extends THEN you follow through, and when you follow through make sure to really snap that wrist. When you **** your wrist back all the way it's natural reflex reaction is to flick forward. So again, you are build muscle memory in your wrist to be able to do this instinctively.

When you are doing this drill try and make 10 in a row without missing. Then take 1 step back. do the same over and over. When you find you can't make 10 in a row anymore, make note of where you are, you are going to try and get a little further back every workout by making 10 in a row. After you max out, go back and do the same thing with two hands. If you do this drill over and over, you will eventually get better at this. It wont happen after 2 or 3 days, it will take a week or two until you see major improvements because like every other muscle your body you workout it takes time for them to adjust and recover.

I'd say work on that for now, it's only May and its a long summer. Don't worry about your weight, trying to get big or whatever. You're still really young and your body will develop a naturally athletic physique the more you work on your game anyway. If you want to put a little muscle on do wide grip pullups, dips, pushups, pike pushups, pistol squats, calf raises, planks basically bodyweight work. Bigger =/= stronger and focusing on just your weight will make you lose focus of the bigger picture.

Check the other threads for pointers too, lots of good stuff on this forum.

oh and for the floater, if you improve your feel for the ball it will be really easy to get that shot down. The best players using the floater (ie. Rose, Parker) are also the best at using the glass, spinning the ball of the glass from weird angles etc. It's because they have a really good feel for the ball. They also rarely get stripped because of it.

havent read your guys' suggestions yet, but im going to soon. thanks so much for all the detail guys. i gotta question, you know how kyrie put the ball in a plastic bag and dribbled, does that work?

thanks guys, ish is the best

EDIT:

and does the type of hoop effect anything? cuz my hoop outside is a new style hoop but its a little bouncy compared to the ones at the gym which are the same style just more rigid.

Sure you can use a plastic bag. It's to take the grip away from the ball, if you don't keep your dribble low and tight you'll lose the ball. I've used a tennis ball as well sometimes, if you can dribble a tennis ball well a basketball will feel like a beach balloon.

And for the hoop it doesn't really matter, it's not accuracy you are working on its form. When you have good form and practice enough your accuracy will go up no problem. As long as its 10 feet you're good.

Sure you can use a plastic bag. It's to take the grip away from the ball, if you don't keep your dribble low and tight you'll lose the ball. I've used a tennis ball as well sometimes, if you can dribble a tennis ball well a basketball will feel like a beach balloon.

And for the hoop it doesn't really matter, it's not accuracy you are working on its form. When you have good form and practice enough your accuracy will go up no problem. As long as its 10 feet you're good.

yea it could help, it really depends how persistent you are. Doing just that alone will not give you Kyrie handles. I'd bet a large sum of money Kyrie at some point in his basketball career worked hours upon hours on his ball handling.

Lots of things will "help", but how hard are you going to work at it? Are you going to be satisfied once your handles improve a little and stop or are you going to be a perfectionist? Don't just settle on one drill. Mix it up and reach outside of your comfort zone. If your practices are difficult then games will be easy.

yea it could help, it really depends how persistent you are. Doing just that alone will not give you Kyrie handles. I'd bet a large sum of money Kyrie at some point in his basketball career worked hours upon hours on his ball handling.

Lots of things will "help", but how hard are you going to work at it? Are you going to be satisfied once your handles improve a little and stop or are you going to be a perfectionist? Don't just settle on one drill. Mix it up and reach outside of your comfort zone. If your practices are difficult then games will be easy.

ight thanks! basketball workouts are monday and the only thing im worried about is if we do dribbling or not. if im worried about it, would that make me mess up more?

ight thanks! basketball workouts are monday and the only thing im worried about is if we do dribbling or not. if im worried about it, would that make me mess up more?

well, what exactly are you worried about? the ball wont explode if you drop it, worse case scenario you loose the handle and you pick it back up . Use workouts to get better dont worry about what everyone else is doing.

well, what exactly are you worried about? the ball wont explode if you drop it, worse case scenario you loose the handle and you pick it back up . Use workouts to get better dont worry about what everyone else is doing.

haha thanks thats true. and i was at the gym and this trainer guy was working on ball handling with the plastic bag and he had me try it and yeah it felt like if you do it hard and long enough, your handles will get tighter and better.

im 5'9 and made the d league, what you should do is improve your jumper so that it is automatic. Most importantly you have to utilise the speed advantage you have so that the height thing isnt so much of an issue.

im 5'9 and made the d league, what you should do is improve your jumper so that it is automatic. Most importantly you have to utilise the speed advantage you have so that the height thing isnt so much of an issue.